Fierce Hummingbird – 01Aug2014

Late in the evening, when hummers are wanting to top off before retiring, this guy was playing guard on all seven feeders in back. 

You can see the result of one encounter with what it considered trespassers on more sugared water than it could drink in a month. 

Yes, that is a feather at the end of its beak, and not one of its own.

. . . and look at that fierce expression!

. . . although, he was not super vigilant . . . 

However, after what seemed like brief catnaps, his attention would return to the feeders.

. . . well, mostly . . . 

For them who are actually reading this, I’m at the sliding door to my deck, and its sitting on the flower basket on the table about six feet away. 

Yes, he kept flaring his throat feathers, and I wondered if he was preparing to mount an offensive campaign directed at me.

But no, he just headed to the feeder on the window, and here’s where it gets interesting

As I snapped away, I slowly crept closer.

I was pretty dang close for these next two shots, and he never moved. I ended up backing off to let him drink in peace.

He certainly was a pretty fellow, and you can now understand why I tagged this post with “macro”. I got closer to this guy than most flowers I shoot. In all fairness, he’s smaller than most flowers I shoot.

Anyway, there I was on the deck, camera in hand . . . I meandered to the hanging feeder.

I do like it when they let me get close.

I don’t know if this is the same female (they all look alike after a while – birds, not actual females), but this one at a different window feeder also let me get close, but not as close as the earlier male.

We’ve already noticed a drop-off in the numbers of hummers at our feeders. I only have to fill them every other day, and some don’t get used nearly as much. In another week I will start pulling some of the feeders, making sure to leave enough to minimize the early morning and late evening territorial wars.

I will miss them when they are gone, and will look forward to their return next May.

As usual, you can click on the photos for a larger version, but many of these are worth examining at full resolution, and you can do that at the SmugMug gallery HERE.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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